Mark Carroll Book

[Captain Moondog]

Mark Carroll vs Paul Harragon: Inside rugby league’s most brutal feud​

It’s the brutal footy feud that still captures the imagination 25 years later - and now Mark “Spudd” Carroll has opened up on his battles with Paul Harragon in his new autobiography.

Nick Campton


https://twitter.com/campo37
7 min read
August 15, 2021 - 7:00AM
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom

A quarter of a century after Mark Carroll put Paul “Chief” Harragon down for the count in front of a horde of screaming Newcastle fans, he lifts the lid of one-on-one of rugby league’s most brutal battles.


In his rollicking autobiography Spudd: The Mark Carroll Story, the hardman opens up on his glory days with the Rabbitohs and Sea Eagles

Mark Carroll and Paul Harragon go toe to toe in 1995 in Newcastle.
“It’s a legacy,” Carroll said. “I said to Chief it’s amazing we caused a legacy trying to smash each other.
“And I don’t see that in the game these days – there’s not enough rivalry, there’s not enough hatred.
“I was brought up to shake someone’s hand and look them in the eye on the field but I’m not out there slapping backs, it’s my pet hate.
“You just went to war with a bloke, why pat him on the back?”
These days, Carroll and Harragon are mates – but in the mid-90s they were locked in a brutal war of supremacy. In an exclusive extract, Carroll reveals the inside story of their most famous battle in 1995 at Marathon Stadium.
Carroll stood over Harragon’s prone body like a lion ready to devour a gazelle and Knights players from the time swear they heard the hard-nosed prop say, “You’re my prey, I am going to eat you” – and in the heat of battle, Carroll reckons it was fair enough.
“I was standing over him like my prey. He pulled me up at a grand final once and I told him I did say something, and I apologised but back then, bugger it,” Carroll said.
Written with rugby league journalist Adam Hawse, Carroll’s book features a foreword by Russell Crowe and a chapter written by Manly legend Bob Fulton in the last months of his life. Like Carroll himself, the yarns are direct and thoroughly entertaining.
“We’d sit down on the water with a can of Toohey’s New every day for about an hour,” Carroll said.

Mark Carroll was one of rugby league’s toughest players.
“I asked Russell to do the foreword, which took a long time to do because he’s so busy. When I first read it, I thought he was having a go at me for annoying the **** out of him because I annoy the **** out of everyone, especially at my gym.
“If you don’t ask, you don’t get. That’s one of my rules in life.
“I was fortunate enough to get the great Bozo to do a chapter as well. I didn’t know how crook he was and he did it two months before he passed away – he hammered me as well.
“The yarns from Cinderella Man, where I met Ron Howard, Angelo Dundee and Renée Zellweger, they were really fantastic times. “I don’t think it’ll break any records, but I guarantee it’ll give a few people a laugh.”
Spudd: The Mark Carroll Story (penguin, random house, $34.99) will be available from August 17 where all good books are sold

 

[Captain Moondog]

​

BOOK EXTRACT: COLLISION THAT SHOOK RUGBY LEAGUE WORLD​

By Mark Carroll
Paul Harragon and I went to war every time we played. Chief played the same position as me, we both loved the collision. It was our job to lead from the front, so it was inevitable we would clash.
And, no, we didn’t like each other.
This was the game that best sums up our “relationship”. You would have all seen the replay a million times. It was round 17, 1995, when Chief tried to wipe me out on a kick return, only to be handed a one-way ticket to la-la land.
I was pretty much called a madman on national television and had my character questioned. Well, there were a few factors leading up to that game which contributed to what happened.
Firstly, all week the boys at Manly were revving me up.
“Chief’s going to bash you, Spudd,” Geoff Toovey whispered to me. Terry Hill spat: “He’s going to get you, Spudd!”
This went on all bloody week.

Mark Carroll and Paul Harragon went to war every time they played.
On the way up the F3, I got a phone call from the old man. “Get the first shot in.” He hung up without another word, as usual, but I knew who he meant.
Even when Mum rang to say “don’t hurt anyone, Mark”, it was quickly followed by another fire-up call. This time from my brother, Dean. “Go and bash so and so.” Every second word was an expletive.
So my eyes were already spinning when I got to Marathon Stadium, where a record crowd of 32,000 was building. You can imagine what we copped when the locals saw us Manly boys walk through the gates. It would fair dinkum make a wharfie blush.
Then we got in the sheds and guess what, a centimetre or two of water was lapping at our feet. An old trick by the Knights to make the visiting team extra uncomfortable in those cold, concrete dressing-rooms.
I remember the deafening noise of thousands of fans stomping their feet in the grandstand above our room. I was amazed the place didn’t just collapse on top of us.
As I was getting strapped, I felt some moisture running down my arm, which I assumed was sweat. I looked around and noticed this little open window, and two kids peering inside spitting at me. True story. I had gollies all over me before I did battle with the Chief!
You can imagine my state of mind after that sort of preparation. Don’t worry about Harragon, I was ready to take on the Knights all by myself. Oh, and did I mention it was a top-of-the-table clash? We were first and they were second.
Game on, baby!
In the very first set of six, Chief ran a decoy and I took him out anyway. I didn’t care. Then he jumped up and it was on. He pulled my jersey over my head and threw a few at me, which opened me up like a split watermelon, because I’d suffered that gash above my right eye against the Kiwis and it hadn’t fully recovered.
I went to the blood bin and Chief to the sin bin. The fans were going off their heads by this stage. I was getting stitched up when a message came down from Bozo (Bob Fulton).
‘Tell Spudd it’s not a personal war!’
I told the trainer to tell Bozo to go f--k himself. It’s f---en on!

We were on fire that night and led 20–8 at halftime. We put the match out of reach early in the second half when John Hopoate scored in the corner.
Us forwards were actually still coming out of a scrum when Hoppa scored, and I was so pumped to see him plant the ball down.
So excited, in fact, I crow-pecked the Chief on the back of his head as hard as I could. “You f---ing dog, you’ve got nothing!’
I just couldn’t contain myself. Anyway, I found out later that Chief didn’t like the
crow-peck too much and demanded Joey Johns aim the kick-off in my direction.

I always caught the kick-off if it was anywhere near me. None of these little hand-offs from the halfback. So I caught Joey’s kick and began the run back into the teeth of the Knights defence. My aim was always to make the quarter line to get our set off to a big start.

Out of nowhere, Chief came hurtling towards me at a hundred miles an hour! He hit me side-on, but my right shoulder caught his chin on impact.

I did a full 360-degree spin, got up, played the ball as quick as I could, and shoulder-charged their Pommy forward Chris Joynt out of the way at marker.
The hit had winded me, but there was no way I was showing any pain. Dad always said, “Never show you’re hurt – always get up.” Honestly, I was more scared of Dad jumping the fence than anything else.

While adrenaline was surging through my body, the Chief was on the ground. Out cold. I was standing over the top of him, having a few things to say, but he didn’t hear me. He was snoring.

Cement Gillespie saw this and was winding me up big time. “Give it to him, Spudd! Give it to him!”

Tooves came over to suggest I step back a bit, to calm things down – and I shoved him away. I pushed my own bloody skipper! It was all heat-of-the-moment stuff.

In the end, Chief recovered and played on. There’s no way they’d let that happen these days!

We went on to win the game convincingly, but all anyone was talking about was that collision. A few days later I caught a replay of the game and heard Peter Sterling in commentary just giving it to me. Saying my actions as Chief was on the ground were not those of a “tough” player and that I’d “lost points” in his view.
Chief and I were actually on stage with him at a function ahead of the 2019 grand final between the Roosters and Raiders. The MC, Andrew Voss, asked me what did I say to Chief as he lay on the Marathon Stadium turf 24 years earlier.

Before I answered I looked over at Paul and told him I would never say anything derogatory about him. I’d never do that to him or his family.

“But I did give it to you and said, ‘Is that the best you’ve got, you f---en dog?”’

 

[Captain Moondog]

I would've liked to see Matterson try his **** on Mark Carroll.

 

[Shoe1]

Ouch. The book has an intro by Crowe? I’ll have to think about that before purchasing.

 

[Captain Moondog]

Ouch. The book has an intro by Crowe? I’ll have to think about that before purchasing.

Upstart Crow, he's no Shakespeare.

 

[globaleagle]

An 'autobiography'

Methinks Adam Hawse isn't getting enough credit, lol.

 

[cc eagle]

Upstart Crow, he's no Shakespeare.

He's the gladiator